Direct gate patterning for vertical transport field effect transistor
Forming a semiconductor structure, including epitaxially growing a first source drain region between a first fin in an N-FET region and a second fin in a P-FET region, forming a shallow trench isolation region separating the N-FET region and the P-FET region, conformally forming an insulator on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, conformally forming a work function metal layer on exposed surfaces, conformally forming a liner, conformally forming an organic planarization layer, forming a titanium nitride layer, patterning a photo resist mask, forming an first opening between the N-FET region and the P-FET region, wherein a top surface of a portion of the liner is exposed at a bottom of the first opening, removing the portion of the liner between the N-FET region and the P-FET region and removing a portion of the work function metal layer between the N-FET region and the P-FET region.
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The present invention relates, generally, to the field of semiconductor manufacturing, and more particularly to fabricating field effect transistors.
Complementary Metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology is commonly used for field effect transistors (hereinafter “FET”) as part of advanced integrated circuits (hereinafter “IC”), such as central processing units (hereinafter “CPUs”), memory, storage devices, and the like. A vertical transport FET or vertical FET is a structure in which current flow is in the vertical direction flowing between a source/drain at a top of a fin and a second source/drain adjacent to a bottom of the fin, and a wrap-around gate surrounding a middle portion of the fin.
As demands to reduce the dimensions of transistor devices continue, vertical-type transistors such as vertical field effect transistors (vertical FETs or VFETs) help achieve a reduced FET device footprint while maintaining FET device performance. A vertical FET may use less surface area of a die than conventional FETs, which is needed with shrinking design rules.
In VFETs, the gate may be formed by a blanket metal stack deposition. To isolate and form individual devices and provide landing pads or connection pads for contacts, the gate metal of a fin may be patterned to electrically isolate from the gate metal of an adjacent fin. One technique to do this is direct gate patterning. Direct gate patterning consists of a lithography, dry etch and wet etch steps. It is important to avoiding damaging the gate metal during patterning to avoid device degradation. It may be challenging to strip lithography layers to perform the gate cut without simultaneously damaging the gate metal.
SUMMARYAccording to an embodiment, a method is provided. The method may include forming a semiconductor structure, the method including epitaxially growing a first source drain region on the semiconductor structure between a first fin in an N-FET region of the semiconductor structure and a second fin in a P-FET region of the semiconductor structure, forming a shallow trench isolation region separating the N-FET region and the P-FET region, conformally forming an insulator on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure between the N-FET region and the P-FET region, conformally forming a work function metal layer on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, conformally forming a liner on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, conformally forming an organic planarization layer on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, forming a titanium nitride layer on the exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, patterning a photo resist mask on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, forming an first opening between the N-FET region and the P-FET region, wherein a top surface of a portion of the liner between the N-FET region and the P-FET region is exposed at a bottom of the first opening, removing the portion of the liner between the N-FET region and the P-FET region and removing a portion of the work function metal layer between the N-FET region and the P-FET region to expand the first opening, where a top surface of a portion of the insulator between the N-FET region and the P-FET region is exposed at a new bottom of the first opening.
According to an embodiment, a method is provided. The method may include forming a semiconductor structure, the method including forming an organic planarization layer on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, where the organic planarization layer covers a first work function metal layer, conformally forming a second work function metal layer on the organic planarization layer, where a top surface of the organic planarization layer is coplanar with a bottom surface of the second work function metal layer, patterning a photo resist mask on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, removing the second work function metal layer and the organic planarization layer selective to the photo resist mask, exposing a top surface of a liner between a first fin and a second fin; and removing remaining portions of the second work function metal layer, portions of the liner between the first fin and the second fin, and portions of the first work function metal layer between the first fin and the second fin, selective to a remaining portion of the organic planarization layer, exposing an insulator between the first fin and the second fin and electrically separating the first work function metal layer between the first fin and the second fin.
According to an embodiment, a structure is provided. The structure may include a first fin in an N-FET region on a semiconductor substrate, a second fin in a P-FET region on the semiconductor substrate; a first source drain region adjacent to a bottom portion of the first fin, a work function metal layer conformally surrounding sidewalls of both the first fin and the second fin, an organic planarization layer surrounding the work function metal layer, and a titanium nitride layer coplanar with a top surface of the organic planarization layer.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings. The various features of the drawings are not to scale as the illustrations are for clarity in facilitating one skilled in the art in understanding the invention in conjunction with the detailed description. In the drawings:
Detailed embodiments of the claimed structures and methods are disclosed herein; however, it can be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely illustrative of the claimed structures and methods that may be embodied in various forms. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. In the description, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments.
References in the specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
It will be understood that when an element as a layer, region or substrate is referred to as being “on” or “over” another element, it can be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on” or “directly over” another element, there are no intervening elements present. It will also be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elements present.
In the interest of not obscuring the presentation of embodiments of the present invention, in the following detailed description, some processing steps or operations that are known in the art may have been combined together for presentation and for illustration purposes and in some instances may have not been described in detail. In other instances, some processing steps or operations that are known in the art may not be described at all. It should be understood that the following description is rather focused on the distinctive features or elements of various embodiments of the present invention.
The present invention generally relates to semiconductor manufacturing and more particularly to fabricating a vertical field effect transistor (hereinafter “FET”). The vertical FET fabrication process may include processing a gate fabricated with a metal stack conformally deposited over a substrate, including a fin of the FET. The metal stack may need to be cut or electrically isolated between adjacent fins. Lithography or photolithography may be used to form a mask which may protect areas around the fin from subsequent processing. The subsequent processing may remove the metal stack between adjacent fins to provide electrical isolation between adjacent fins. Photolithography may use a photo resist for patterning a mask, where remaining portions of the mask over an area surrounding the fin may be blocked from subsequent processing. Fins such as those described below may require a mask of greater than 100 nm thick to enable a selective etch. However, photo resist typically should be less than 30 nm thick in order for light to penetrate an entire depth or thickness of the photo resist. Additionally, a relatively level surface is required for application of the photo resist. An organic planarization layer, (hereinafter “OPL”), may be used to provide the relatively level surface on a substrate and to provide etch selectivity of the OPL relative to a work function metal layer or metal stack. Photo resist cannot be directly formed on the OPL, and an intermediate hardmask may be used between the photo resist and the OPL. The resulting three layers may be referred to as a photolithography stack or a trilayer stack, which includes the OPL, a hardmask layer, and a photo resist layer. The trilayer stack can be greater than 100 nm thick, including a photo resist layer less than 30 nm thick. The hardmask may typically be a silicon containing antireflective coating layer, (hereinafter “SiARC”), resulting in a SiARC trilayer stack of the OPL, the SiARC, and the photo resist layer.
In a preferred embodiment, a titanium nitride layer may be used as the hardmask, which may be referred to as an intermediate hardmask, or as a lithography underlayer. In this embodiment, the trilayer stack may include the OPL, the titanium nitride layer, and the photo resist layer.
A method of manufacturing a vertical FET is described in detail below by referring to the accompanying drawings in
Referring now to
At this step of the manufacturing process, the beginning structure of a field effect transistor (hereinafter “FET”) is shown. The FET may be formed on the substrate 10 according to techniques known in the art. The substrate 10 may include a negative channel field effect transistor (hereinafter “N-FET”) region 101 and a positive channel field effect transistor (hereinafter “P-FET”) region 102. As shown in
In general, a FinFET device may include a plurality of fins 14 formed in the substrate 10. In this example, the FinFET may be formed from the substrate 10 using known photolithography and etch processes. It should also be noted, that in the context of FinFET devices the portion of the substrate 10 illustrated in the figures represents a cross-section view perpendicular with a length of the fin 14.
A FinFET device may include a plurality of fins formed in a substrate and a wrap-around gate covering a portion of each of the fins. The portion of each of the fins covered by the gate may serve as a channel region of the device. A top source drain region of the device may be located above the fin and a bottom source drain region may be located adjacent to a lower portion of a side of the fin.
The substrate 10 may be a bulk substrate, which may be made from any of several known semiconductor materials such as, for example, silicon, germanium, silicon-germanium alloy carbon-doped silicon-germanium alloy, and compound (e.g. III-V and II-VI) semiconductor materials. Non-limiting examples of compound semiconductor materials include gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, and indium phosphide. In other embodiments, the substrate 10 may be, for example, a layered semiconductor such as Si/SiGe, a silicon-on-insulator, or a SiGe-on-insulator, where a buried insulator layer separates a base substrate from a top semiconductor layer. In such cases, components of the structure 100 may be formed in or from the top semiconductor layer of the SOI substrate. Typically the substrate 10 may be approximately, but is not limited to, several hundred microns thick.
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The photo resist mask 36 may be subsequently removed after etching according to known techniques.
Referring now to
An additional etch step is required to remove remaining portions of the SiARC 34 above the fin 14, in this embodiment.
The WFM 28 may now be electrically isolated between adjacent fins. The WFM 28 surrounding a portion of the fin 14 may be a gate of a first finFET device, and the electrically isolated WFM 28 surround a portion of an adjacent fin 14 may be a gate for a second finFET device. Thus, the gate for the fin 14 may be electrically isolated from the adjacent gate of the adjacent fin 14.
Referring now to
An alternate embodiment of forming a photolithography stack is now shown. The photolithography stack includes three layers. The three layers include an organic planarization layer (hereinafter “OPL”) 32, as shown in
Referring now to
Referring now to
The photo resist mask 36 as shown in
Referring now to
The photo resist mask 36 may be subsequently removed after etching according to known techniques.
Referring now to
In this embodiment, processing to form the fourth opening 56 may simultaneously remove remaining portions of the TiN layer 50. Thus, a further etch step is not required to remove remaining portions of the TiN layer 50 above the fin 14. The use of the TiN layer 50 instead of the SiARC 34 as described above, results in fewer etching steps.
The embodiment as shown in
The WFM 28 may now be electrically isolated between adjacent fins. The WFM 28 may be a gate of a finFET device. Thus, the gate for a fin 14 is electrically isolated from the adjacent gate of the fin 14.
Referring now to
The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the embodiment, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.
Claims
1. A method for forming a semiconductor structure, the method comprising:
- epitaxially growing a first source drain region on the semiconductor structure between a first fin in an N-FET region of the semiconductor structure and a second fin in a P-FET region of the semiconductor structure;
- forming a shallow trench isolation region separating the N-FET region and the P-FET region;
- conformally forming an insulator on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure between the N-FET region and the P-FET region;
- conformally forming a work function metal layer on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure;
- conformally forming a liner on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure;
- conformally forming an organic planarization layer on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure;
- forming a titanium nitride layer on the exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure;
- patterning a photo resist mask on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure;
- forming an first opening between the N-FET region and the P-FET region, wherein a top surface of a portion of the liner between the N-FET region and the P-FET region is exposed at a bottom of the first opening; and
- removing the portion of the liner between the N-FET region and the P-FET region and removing a portion of the work function metal layer between the N-FET region and the P-FET region to expand the first opening, wherein a top surface of a portion of the insulator between the N-FET region and the P-FET region is exposed at a new bottom of the first opening.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
- forming a spacer on a horizontal top surface of the first source drain region, wherein a horizontal top surface of the first source drain region is coplanar with a horizontal bottom surface of the spacer.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the spacer comprises a nitride.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the insulator comprises hafnium oxide.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the work function metal layer comprises titanium nitride.
6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
- epitaxially growing a second source drain region above a top surface of the first fin in the N-FET region and above a second fin in the P-FET region.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the liner comprises silicon nitride.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein expanding the first opening between the N-FET region and the P-FET region, wherein a second bottom of the first opening is a top surface of a portion of the insulator further comprises simultaneously removing the titanium nitride layer.
9. A method for forming a semiconductor structure, the method comprising:
- forming an organic planarization layer on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure, wherein the organic planarization layer covers a first work function metal layer;
- conformally forming a second work function metal layer on the organic planarization layer, wherein a top surface of the organic planarization layer is coplanar with a bottom surface of the second work function metal layer;
- patterning a photo resist mask on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure;
- removing the second work function metal layer and the organic planarization layer selective to the photo resist mask, exposing a top surface of a liner between a first fin and a second fin; and
- removing remaining portions of the second work function metal layer, portions of the liner between the first fin and the second fin, and portions of the first work function metal layer between the first fin and the second fin, selective to a remaining portion of the organic planarization layer, exposing an insulator between the first fin and the second fin and electrically separating the first work function metal layer between the first fin and the second fin.
10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:
- epitaxially growing a first source drain region in a substrate of the semiconductor structure between the first fin and the second fin;
- epitaxially growing a second source drain region above a top surface of each of the first fin and the second fin.
11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:
- conformally forming an insulator on exposed surfaces of the semiconductor structure between the first fin and the second fin.
12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:
- simultaneously removing portions of the second work function metal layer, portions of the liner between the first fin and the second fin, and portions of the first work function metal layer between the first fin and the second fin, selective to a remaining portion of the organic planarization layer.
13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first work function metal layer and the second work function metal layer each comprise titanium nitride.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Sep 11, 2017
Date of Patent: Jan 8, 2019
Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)
Inventors: Ekmini A. De Silva (Slingerlands, NY), Indira Seshadri (Niskayuna, NY), Stuart A. Sieg (Albany, NY), Wenyu Xu (Albany, NY)
Primary Examiner: Thien F Tran
Application Number: 15/700,246
International Classification: H01L 21/8238 (20060101); H01L 21/28 (20060101); H01L 21/3213 (20060101); H01L 29/51 (20060101); H01L 27/092 (20060101); H01L 29/66 (20060101);